A man wearing a beanie leans from a window of his brick two-story, his face stoic. Another, with curly white hair, snuggles a dog with locks to match. A family of four works on a puzzle at their dining room table, the warm glow of a chandelier above them.
When COVID-19 began to spread across St. Louis and stay-at-home orders were enacted, local commercial photographer Lou Bopp knew he wanted to document what was happening. Bopp, who’s been shooting for 30 years, decided to start a series of portraits of St. Louisans at home. Numbered and captioned simply “portraits of mandated isolation” on Instagram, the photos are shot through the windows of friends, family, and neighbors. Bopp dons a mask and is careful to stay at least 10 feet from anyone while shooting. Even with this social distancing, he says, he’s spending more time now with family and friends than before the quarantine.
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“When things are normal, I’m traveling and working a lot, and I never see anybody,” Bopp says, “and when I am home, I’m kind of a homebody. In the last couple of weeks, with the number of people whom I’ve shot, I’ve seen more friends and family and neighbors than I have in years.”
He’s also using the project as a way to spend time with his 11-year-old daughter, Rose, who is learning to edit.
Bopp doesn’t give his subjects much notice. The first portrait in the series is a friend, the photographer Michael Eastman. Bopp issued a 10-minute warning that he was coming by to take his portrait. “I don’t want people to get made up,” he explains. “I don’t want them to do much to themselves or the house. I don’t even want them to clean the windows. I like the smudges of pollen. I like the textures of the screens and the reflections.”
Bopp spends just five to 10 minutes with each subject, but that’s part of the challenge: to create a meaningful image under pressure, to not overthink it. It’s the surprises that pop up in the photos that have made the project creatively fulfilling.
Take an image of David Lazaroff, of the band Brothers Lazaroff. Banjo slung over his shoulder, Lazaroff leans against his storm door. The bottom half of the glass reflects tree branches.
“I just thought that was beautiful,” Bopp says. “It looks like he’s rooted in his life.”
To see more of Bopp’s quarantine series, visit his Instagram at instagram.com/loubopp.
